Income Access, Paysafe’s marketing and technology services provider, has released a new survey report, entitled State of Play: iGaming’s Affiliate Marketing Industry.
The report includes statistical and anecdotal insights on the current state of the affiliate marketing industry as well as expectations for 2018 and what trends will define the months ahead.
The report outlined that 25% of affiliates surveyed were looking to pursue ventures into the burgeoning esports market in the coming year and 23% of affiliates surveyed are aiming to tap into the Asian market in the future.
More than 20 survey questions cover a range of topics, including mobile traffic and optimisation, preferred advertising models, verticals and markets of interest, factors when considering an operator partner and more. The full report is available for download on the Income Access website.
Questions related to mobile and promotional strategies were among the most revealing. 86% of affiliates said that they currently run a mobile site and 77% selected content (i.e. online site reviews, sports news, etc.) as a key promotional strategy. For the latter point, other popular promotional strategies include banner adverts with sign-up offers (55%) and Twitter accounts with trackable links (30%).
Casino (44%), sportsbook (36%), poker (31%) and bingo (27%) were identified as the top four verticals that affiliates are considering promoting in the future. esports (25%), lottery (21%) and social gaming (21%) also showed signs of long-term affiliate interest.
Income Access compared several results to a separate 2016 affiliate survey – also conducted by Income Access – that addressed many of the same topics and questions. This comparison showed an increase from 20% to 39% of affiliates who said that more than 50% of their traffic arrived from mobile devices. For verticals, the number of affiliates who selected bingo as a current focus rose from 17% in 2016 to 40% in 2017. Casino was the top current vertical of focus at 75%.
Several affiliates provided personal and anecdotal commentary about the current state of affiliate marketing, expectations regarding the affiliate channel’s evolution and the most important questions affiliates will ask themselves in 2018.
Through the Income Access Network, iGaming’s longest-serving independent affiliate network, Income Access is in daily contact with leading industry affiliates across an array of verticals and markets. With its suite of digital marketing services, including affiliate programme management, media buying, SEM, ASO and content marketing, Income Access has also gained in-depth knowledge of the tools and strategies leveraged by iGaming industry stakeholders.
Lorenzo Pellegrino, CEO of Income Access and Digital Wallets at Paysafe, said: “With the survey report, Income Access set out to evaluate the state of the industry through the eyes of affiliates. What we found was a mix of consistency, which can be seen in results for the leading markets and verticals, and evolution. Increased interest in burgeoning verticals such as eSports and Lottery is a great sign for the industry. That affiliates are making a conscious effort to be strategic with their content development is similarly encouraging.”
For more information about the survey report, please contact Income Access.
